This is actually the very first pair of I-Saw customs that we did with the hand engraving techique, before we came up with the term "Engraviti", to describe the process, or "Sneakouture" as a name for all the trainer customisation. They date back to the very beginning of 2004 and people still haven't caught up, see how ahead of the game we are! We had first tried the technique on a few belts and handmade accessories, as far back as 2002 but didn't immediately make the connection to using it for footwear. We then started researching laser cutting, initially more as a technique for use on our clothing fabrics, when we got aproached by a major bootwear company for a collaboration, we thought to ourselves what if it could work on leathers but decided not to let the cat out of the bag, so to speak, until the project was confirmed. Unfortunately that project didn't make it past the first couple of planning meetings, so we still had our plan under wraps. But great minds think alike and great minds with limitless budgets always get there first, obviously, so we were a tad miffed when Nike beat us to the punch, about 6 months later (I guess it was about the end of 2003) when they bought out the first of their laser etched series. This prompted us to perfect our earlier hand done technique which is still to this day mistaken for the work of machines but is in fact all the work of our own fair hands. Incidentally this pair are also going up for sale on our website very shortly.
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